Michael Makovsky since 2013 has been President and CEO of the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), a leading Washington, D.C.-based policy and educational organization focused on U.S. defense and national security issues in the Middle East. Makovsky…
Jonathan Ruhe is JINSA’s Fellow for American Strategy. Prior to joining JINSA, he worked at the Bipartisan Policy Center (BPC), where he focused on Middle East and Former Soviet Union security issues. His commentary has appeared in the Wall Street…
John Hannah is the Randi & Charles Wax Senior Fellow at JINSA’s Gemunder Center for Defense and Strategy. John served in senior foreign policy positions for both Democratic and Republican administrations, including as former Vice President Dick Cheney’s National Security…
Giran Ozcan joined JINSA in December 2025 as Fellow for Kurdish Affairs. Prior to JINSA, Giran was the founding Executive Director of the Kurdish Peace Institute. He has previously worked with the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) in its overseas representative…
Jared Stone is Research Associate for the President & CEO of JINSA. He earned an A.B. in Politics from Princeton, where he wrote his senior thesis on early Revisionist Zionist thought. He has worked across policy, advocacy, and research related…
Rena Gabber is Research Associate for JINSA Senior Fellow John Hannah. She formerly worked as a Research Assistant at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, focusing on Arab-Israel relations. Rena graduated from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service with…
Sarah Havdala is a Policy Analyst and former intern for JINSA. Sarah is pursuing a master’s degree in Terrorism and Homeland Security Policy at American University in Washington, D.C., where she also obtained her bachelor’s degree in International Studies with a…
Jonah Brody is a Policy Analyst at JINSA. His research interests include Middle Eastern geopolitics, counterterrorism, and Turkish foreign and security policy. Jonah holds an M.A. in International Security from Sciences Po Paris, a B.A. in History from the University…
Yoni Tobin is a Senior Policy Analyst at JINSA. Yoni holds a B.A. in International Relations, with honors, from Boston University and an M.A. in International Security Policy from Columbia University. He previously worked at the Center for Naval Analyses,…
Blaise Misztal is the Vice President for Policy at JINSA. His research interests include Iran and its nuclear program, U.S.-Turkey relations, countering extremism, and strategic competition. Most recently, Blaise was a Fellow at the Hudson Institute. Prior to that, he…